324 SECRETION. 



the liver were made immediately after death, and the pro- 

 portion of glycogenic matter, not sugar, was estimated. His 

 results are, consequently, much more reliable and satisfac- 

 tory. In a number of analyses of the livers of dogs confined 

 to different articles of diet, Pavy found a little over seven 

 per cent, of glycogenic matter, upon a diet of animal food ; 

 over seventeen per cent., upon a diet of vegetable food; and 

 fourteen and a half per cent., upon a diet of animal food and 

 sugar. 1 These results have been confirmed by M'Donnell, 

 who, in addition, found that hardly a trace of amyloid sub- 

 stance could be detected in the liver on a diet of fat, and 

 none whatever upon a diet of gelatine. 2 Bernard had al- 

 ready observed that the amount of sugar produced by the 

 liver on a diet of fat was the same as during total abstinence 

 from food. 3 These facts are entirely in accordance with ob- 

 servations upon the effects of different kinds of food in dia- 

 betes, and they have an important bearing upon the dietetic 

 measures to be employed in this disease. 



The effect of entire deprivation of food is to arrest the 

 production of sugar in the liver, three or four days before 

 death. 4 This arrest of the glycogenic function has generally 

 been observed in cases of disease, except when death has 

 occurred suddenly. 



Influence of the Nervous System, etc. Bernard has 

 studied the influence of the nervous system upon the pro- 

 duction of sugar more satisfactorily than any other of the 

 variations of the glycogenic function, for the reason that he 

 has noted these modifications by determining the sugar in 

 the blood and the urine. Some of the points with regard 

 to the nervous system we will consider again in another vol- 

 ume ; and it is sufficient, in this connection, to mention the 



1 PAVY, op. cit., p. 33, el seq. 



8 M'DONNELL, Observations on the Functions of the Liver, Dublin, 1865, p. 14. 



3 BERNARD, Lemons de physiologic experimentale, Paris, 1855, p. 137. 



* BERNARD, op. cit., p. 129. 



